Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
Paul wrote:
> In article <10818vqladftj31@corp.supernews.com>, George
> <louisianaguy@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Paul wrote:
>>
>>>In article <10809f1nncilv1b@corp.supernews.com>, George
>>><louisianaguy@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>I am not sure how to follow up on my previous post. I seem to have
>>>>solved my previous problem with the video card. Now when system
>>>>is powered up it responds with one short beep (no error ) and
>>>>and it shows that it detects the IDE hard drive and the CD-Rom.
>>>>It seems to go through the POST normally.
>>>>I have a bootable (installation) Linux disk in the CD-Rom and it ignors it
>>>>and then apprears a screen entitled
>>>>
>>>>"Awards Software, Inc"
>>>>"System Configuration"
>>>>
>>>>This screen has several fields and only a few of them have entries.
>>>>
>>>>CPU: AMD K6-2/500
>>>>Co-Processor: installed
>>>>Floppy A: 1.44M, 3.5in
>>>>Floppy B: none
>>>>Primary Master Disk: LBA, UMDA 2,
>>>>
>>>>The rest of the entries have blank entries after them, for instance
>>>>Second Master Disk which should be the CD-ROM has no entry. I rebooted
>>>>several times and checked the boot sequence and even tried to boot from
>>>>a bootable Linux floopy, but no luck just the above sreeen appears and
>>>>I can't obtain another resonse. I tried to find help in the ASUS
>>>>manual that came with the board but no hints. Any help would be
>>>>appreciated. Thanks
>>>>
>>>>George Butler
>>>
>>>
>>>Disconnect all hard disks and CDROM type devices. Try to boot from
>>>the floppy again. It could be one of your IDE interfaces just failed,
>>>so simplify the system a bit and put it back together a piece at a
>>>time.
>>>
>>>If removing the IDE devices isn't helping, the next step would be
>>>to clear the CMOS. Just as when removing or adding ANY hardware
>>>inside the system, unplug the computer and use the procedure
>>>listed in the manual. This may straighten out the CMOS contents.
>>>
>>>The third possibility, is something stored in the BIOS EEPROM is
>>>corrupt. The contents of the BIOS rom include - the executable
>>>code, DMI info, ESCD info, microcode cache, boot block etc. It
>>>is possible reflashing the BIOS chip will help, by resetting all
>>>of these areas.
>>>
>>>The older a board gets, the riskier it is to flash the BIOS
>>>EEPROM, as sometimes the odd bit in an old EEPROM might not
>>>flash properly any more. That is why I saved this step for
>>>last. And also, why I didn't ask you to unplug the floppy,
>>>because if the floppy doesn't work either, you'll have no
>>>working storage device to flash the BIOS from.
>>>
>>>There is a device called a PCI "POST card", and it is a device
>>>with two hex character displays on it. When the BIOS tries to
>>>start the power on self test (POST) procedure, as each subroutine
>>>executes, it writes to one particular I/O port. The two character
>>>code it writes can be used to identify what code is currently
>>>running. One of these cards costs <$100 and some repair shops
>>>will have these - the card can be used to debug what routine
>>>is failing, and perhaps the hardware failure can be identified
>>>from what code is not working properly. There are lists of the
>>>codes used in the BIOS on the internet. POST cards are sometimes
>>>sold by people doing bulk purchases and selling them on Ebay.
>>>Here is an example - the second link is a picture of the card,
>>>and this one plugs into either a PCI slot or an ISA slot:
>>>
>>>http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3474414109&category=1244
>>>
>
>
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3474414109&category=1244#ebayphotohosting
>
>>> Paul
>>
>>Thanks Paul,
>>
>>I did as you suggested. I disconnected the hard drive and CD-ROM (there
>> just the two of them ) and tried to boot off the floppy and sure
>>enought it boots off the floppy. I then connected the hard drive and it
>>boots off of it too. Then I connected the CD-ROM and it does not boot
>>off of it. In fact POST fails to detect it. Does this mean this mean
>>that IDE
>>interface failed? If so is there a remedy. Thanks for your help.
>>
>>George
>
>
> Most Southbridge chips have two IDE interfaces, each taking a master
> and a slave device, for a total of four drives.
>
> You didn't say whether the CDROM is on its own cable or not.
> Your symptoms were, that the BIOS froze while enumerating IDE
> devices, and you are telling me that you could boot from the hard
> drive, so the hard drive and the cable it is on would seem to be
> OK. If you made the CDROM a slave and stuck it on the same cable,
> and the BIOS was stuck again, then that would mean the CDROM
> was defective.
>
> If, on the other hand, the CDROM was on its own cable, then the
> IDE interface on the Southbridge could be defective or the
> CDROM could be defective.
>
> At this point, I would be _very careful_ . If the CDROM has a
> shorted signal on its IDE interface, it could potentially damage
> whatever devices it is connected to or shares with. Leave the
> CDROM disconnected for now, while you test with a device you
> know is working - the hard drive.
>
> There are two IDE connectors on the motherboard. Move the hard
> drive to the other IDE connector and see whether it is detected
> by the BIOS or not. If it is, then the CDROM must be the defective
> part. If the hard drive freezes on the other port, then the port
> on the motherboard is defective and you should no longer connect
> stuff to it.
>
> In fact, to be super-careful, you should now be testing with
> a disk drive you can afford to lose, as if the other IDE port
> happens to damage your hard disk, you could lose access to the
> data on the disk. Perhaps before going any further, do a backup
> of the disk, or find an old, small disk to do your cable and/or
> mobo IDE port testing.
>
> With the price of CDROM drives, it might be just as well to
> pick up a new one, and continue the testing with that.
>
> Mark a big "X" on the defective CDROM, so you don't accidently
> try to reuse it at a later date. (Some people have moved bad
> gear from one computer to another, burning up multiple interfaces
> in the process.)
>
> At least, at this point, something is working for you.
>
> HTH,
> Paul
Thanks Paul,
Things have drifted into the twilight zone since your last instructions.
Actually the problems all started when my system started crashing with
kernel panics. It said that the os (Debian GNU/Linux) was trying to kill
the idle process and so naturally it shuts down. I noticed buried in
the listing of the register contents and other messages that there was a
paging error so I guessed that the hard drive went bad. So I got a
new hard drive ( 90 G Hiatachi ) and when I installed it I didn't bother
to turn off the machine and so the problems you are responding to
started. I did as you suggested. The CD-ROM was on it own cable plugged
into to the secondary IDE interface. I found an old hard drive as you
suggested and disconnected the CD-ROM and hard drive and connected the
old hard drive to the secondary IDE and booted. It was detected
normally. So I figured the CD-ROM was bad but I reconnected the old
drive to the primary IDE and the CD-ROM to the the secondary IDE and lo
and behold the machine booted to a an old Debian installation disk I had
in the CD-ROM. So I reconnected the new
hard drive and then when I booted not even the POST would start. I
disconnected the
new hard drive and put the old back on and this time it got hung
up on the POST at the PNP init step. I reset about 20 times and
sometimes it would boot but mostly it would hand at some stage of
of the POST, either at PNP init or after it detected the IDE devices.
Sometimes it would boot normally. Anyway I let it boot one time to
the Debian Installation disk and then started the installion process
and after it loaded the kernal it went into a kernal panic saying
that that the os had tried to kill the idle process and I
got all those same messages that I mentioned at the start of this
post. I know that was not the fault of the hard drive. So now
I am wondering if the CPU (AMD K6-2/500) is bad. Any thoughts
would be appreciate if you can make sense of any of this.
ps. I forgot to mention that on one of the resets the
beep code went long short short short so I reseated the
video card and that fixed that (again).
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